Top NZ soccer club to play in North-east GUWAHATI, Aug 12 – For the first time in the history of Indian football, a top Australian A-League club – Wellington Phoenix – will compete in a triangular series, titled, “The North East Lajong Super Series”.

The tournament is being jointly organised by Shillong Lajong FC and JPR Events, in association with 3 State associations – All Manipur Football Association, Assam Football Association and Meghalaya Football Association. It will be held from August 24 to September 1 in three North eastern cities – Shillong, Imphal and Guwahati.

Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional club from New Zealand, which plays in Australia’s premier professional football competition, the A-League. In the 2011-12 season, they finished in the top four of the league table. The team also boasts of four World Cup players, who represented New Zealand in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where they did not lose a single game. These include-Tony Lochhead, Benjamin Sigmund, Leo Bertos and Jeremy Brockie. Besides Wellington Phoenix, the tournament will feature two prominent I-League Clubs from the North East – Shillong Lajong FC and newly promoted United Sikkim FC. It will be in a round robin format where all the three teams will go head to head, and the top two teams will play in the final.